Basic types of sea freight containers

Basic types of sea freight containers

The following specification of container types is based on international standards. Below are the series of relevant types of containers. They differ in terms of their external size, the size of doorways and roof openings and tare weight (the weight of the container) and payload. These differences result from structural and technological changes and the use of new materials for building containers.

Each container is characterized primarily based on the length defined in feet. The containers most frequently used for sea transport are 20ft and 40ft containers. From the shipper’s perspective, the most important dimension is the internal dimension, which translates into the quantity of goods that can be put in the container and the door size.

The following are universal sea containers:

•    20ft Container;
•    40ft Container;
•    40ft HC Container (High Cube/heightened)
•    40ft Pallet Wide Container (widened)

The universal 20ft and 40ft containers are dedicated mainly to transporting less than container loads. However, it is also possible to use them to transport goods in bulk, both dry goods and liquids. One needs to make some modifications beforehand.

40ft High Cube containers, or the heightened containers, are intended for shipping dry goods, high-cube goods and extra-height goods, which cannot be loaded onto standard containers. Pallet Wide containers then are used for short-distance shipping of euro-pallet goods.

The following are special containers:

•    20 ft Reefer Container;
•    40 ft Reefer Container;
•    40 ft High Cube Reefer Container;
•    20 ft Open Top Container;
•    40 ft Open Top Container;
•    40 ft Open Top High Cube Container;
•    40 ft Hard Top Container;
•    40 ft High Cube Hard Top Container;
•    20 ft Flat Rack Container;
•    40 ft Flat Rack Container;
•    40 ft High Cube Flat Rack Container;
•    20 ft Platform;
•    40 ft Platform.

Cooling containers are used to transport loads that must be transported at a stable temperature. The structure of the container and its cooling system allows transportation of cooled and frozen goods. Open Top containers, then, are used mainly to transport the loads that cannot be loaded through the door of the standard container due to manipulation restrictions, e.g. goods that are loaded from the top with a crane, which exceed the height of the standard container. The roof of this container is a water-tight tarpaulin with a rope and customs seals.

Hard Top containers are intended for transporting heavy, high cargo that are hard to load onto standard containers. The structure of the container facilitates loading through the top and the door with the dismountable top bar. As opposed to the Open Top container, the Hard Top container has a dismountable waterproof roof made of steel.

Flat rack containers are adjusted to transport the loads with dimensions that preclude the use of universal containers and Open Top containers. Platform containers are used to transport heavy and oversize loads.

The internal dimensions of the most frequently used containers: